The crypto markets rallied on Wednesday, ignoring the China ICO ban to begin climbing back to last week’s record levels. The bitcoin price led the way with an 8% leap past $4,500, while the ethereum price gained 10% to secure its position above $300. The litecoin price headlined a comprehensive altcoin advance that saw 92 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies experience price increases.

Chart from CoinMarketCap

This rally reversed the trajectory of the market, which had been careening downward for several days. The sell-off that was intensified on Massacre Monday forced the total cryptocurrency market cap down as low as $135 billion during the early hours of September 5. At that point, however, it began to climb. By 10:00 it had reached $145 billion. By that evening it had crossed $150 billion. The rally continued on Wednesday morning, extending as high as $160 billion at 7:30 UTC. This constituted a 24-hour gain of more than $15 billion.

Chart from CoinMarketCap

Bitcoin Price Leaps Back to $4,500

Bitcoin price declines have been rare over the past two months, and many new entrants to the cryptocurrency community just received their first taste. After extending toward just under $5,000 over the weekend, the bitcoin price crashed as low as $4,000 earlier in the week. On Tuesday and Wednesday, however, the bitcoin price stopped its skid and began floating back toward its all-time high. The bitcoin price began the day at $4,222; it made steady progress throughout the day and crossed $4,500 at about 7:00 UTC. At present, the bitcoin price is $4,525–a 24-hour gain of 8%. This rally restored bitcoin’s market cap to $74.9 billion.

Bitcoin Price Chart from CoinMarketCap

Investors have good reason to remain bullish on bitcoin’s long-term prospects because adoption continues to proceed at a rapid clip. Coinbase, a prominent U.S. bitcoin exchange that allows users to buy bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin using their bank accounts or debit cards, just hit 10 million registered users, which represents a three-week increase of 800,000. Moreover, two FinTech firms are planning to roll out 2,900 two-way bitcoin ATMs in Australia.

Ethereum Price Posts Double-Digit Gain

The PBoC squeeze on initial coin offerings hit the ethereum price hard, causing it to drop well below $300 on Monday. By Wednesday, however, it had begun to recover. After beginning the day at $299, the ethereum price has risen more than 10% to a present value of $326. The ethereum price still has a long way to go to recover to its pre-crash level of $390, but it has begun to take the first steps to get there. Following today’s rally, ethereum’s market cap increased to $30.8 billion.

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Ethereum Price Chart from CoinMarketCap

Litecoin Price Leads Altcoin Market Advance

The altcoin markets began a welcome recovery on Wednesday, with 92 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies posting price increases. Of those, a large percentage included double-digit gains.

Altcoin Price Chart from CoinMarketCap

The bitcoin cash price rose 9% to $562, escaping the downward pressure that had forced BCH/CNY below $500 on several exchanges. The Ripple price followed closely behind, advancing 8% following news that the FinTech firm by the same name had opened an office in India.

The litecoin price posted the best single-day performance of any top 10 coin. The 5th-ranked cryptocurrency rose from $66 to $75, a 24-hour gain of 15%. Litecoin’s market cap is now just a hair under $4 billion.

Litecoin Price Chart from CoinMarketCap

The NEM and Dash prices posted identical 10% gains, bringing them to $0.304 and $338, respectively. The IOTA price rose 13%, the second-best gain of any top-tier cryptocurrency. Monero and ethereum classic, meanwhile each rose close to 11%.

Posted by Josiah Wilmoth

Josiah is a former ancient and medieval literature teacher. He has been writing about cryptocurrency since 2014, and his work has been cited in Business Insider, NPR, and Yahoo! Finance. He lives in rural North Carolina with his wife and son. Email him directly at [email protected]